Why is this Substack called The Outfluencer, anyway?

And do I really believe ‘influencer’ is a dirty word?

As tomorrow is my birthday, and it marks the year I officially start to fudge things and dodge questions about my real age, I’ve decided to give a TOTALLY RANDOM figure of

36% off annual subscriptions

between now and midnight on the 18th of February. If you’re a free subscriber and would like to upgrade, now really is the time. Especially given next year I will be turning 20. Ahem.

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A very clever reader here recently suggested that I explain the reasoning behind the name The Outfluencer. I felt like it was a good opportunity to explain it, and to dive into some brief chat about the influencer industry and where it’s heading.

The Outfluencer, obviously, is a play on ‘influencer’, and it came to me as I was thinking about my simultaneous detachment from and attachment to the influencer industry. As a magazine editor and journalist, I was adjacent to influencers as they rose up through the media landscape. I had a visible presence and modest following online, and so to some was considered a ‘blogger’ and later an influencer. I never felt like the term applied to me, as I never set out to influence. I never set out to gain followers (and so didn’t, really) and never did any brand partnerships or ad work. But yet – I know to a certain extent I did have influence, in a very small, niche way. 

It was, and is, a term I don’t find I identify with particularly. But yet, it was sort of relevant to where I existed online. When I was naming my Substack, I wanted to highlight the fact that I remained unpaid, therefore unbiased, when it came to beauty products and reviews and anything I ever commented on liking online. I felt like it was my USP in a world where authenticity is waning and hard to come by organically.

On day one in my BA in Journalism, one of my lecturers said, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘once you’re paid for your opinion once, how can anyone trust it again?’ and that really stuck with me – becoming pertinent around the time brands started offering me money for content creation and money to review things. 

Another reason for The Outfluencer as a name was that my career in magazines, once thriving, was irrevocably damaged by the shift in media spend for brands. Where once a big beauty brand might buy an expensive double page spread in a print mag, within a couple of years they were all but ignoring print and funnelling most of their money into influencer marketing. Which, of course, is a welcome evolution, but it meant fewer magazines and significantly less work within them. My job was essentially usurped in a lot of ways by influencer culture, so I felt a detachment from it for that reason too. My job was taken out by influencers – hence, The Outfluencer.

And now, do I think ‘influencer’ is a dirty word? 

Not to me, it isn’t. It might sound like I’m bitter about my demolished career, and for a while I was. But now, and still, the concept of an influencer is, to my mind, a legitimate and worthy one. I know some incredibly talented, hard-working people who are full time influencers and they make next-level content. While I can still see why people are loath to be referred to as ‘influencers’ and prefer creators or some other terms, in general I think the influencer industry is something to admire.

There are, as with everything, pros and cons. As I see it, the influencer industry has brought out immense creativity and diversity, it gives a direct consumer connection that can’t be replicated by a brand elsewhere, it pushes the boundaries of traditional marketing and provides brands with real-time feedback. There’s also the authenticity and relatability factor, but that’s very much present in the ‘cons’ category too. 

We’ve all seen plenty of people compromise their authenticity for awkward, ill-fitting brand partnerships, leading to a lack of trust among followers. Oversaturation is another issue, along with encouraging unnecessary spending and promoting materialism, privacy issues, promotion of unrealistic beauty standards (admittedly not exclusive to the influencer industry) and the short term nature of influencer ‘fame’ – where we see a star rising quickly and burning out fast, disappearing into the ether.

It’s hard to know where the industry is going, but my feeling is it will stick around long term. It’ll be driven by technological advancements and changing consumer preferences, a diversification of platforms, virtual and augmented reality coming into play and I think AI-driven virtual influencers are going to be the next ‘big thing’. 

Sophistication in measuring return on investment is on the rise (praise be!) which demands influencers provide transparent metrics like engagement rates and more specific audience demographics. A huge bugbear of mine in the past is seeing influencers with whopper follower numbers but shockingly bad engagement getting huge brand deals, so hopefully that will dry up. 

Genuine connection, relatable content and authenticity will still reign, but the race to stay relevant in such a dynamic and ever-changing landscape requires quick and constant adaptation from influencers, and the brands that are paying them.

A.

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